Dietrich, John H. (John Hassler), 1878-

John Hassler Dietrich (1878-1957), a prominent Unitarian clergyman and an intellectual leader (1920s-1940s) of its humanist wing, was the son of Jerome Dietrich, "director of the poor" in Marks, Pennsylvania. Descended from Swiss Reformed Church immigrants who settled in central Pennsylvania in 1710, Dietrich graduated from Mercersberg (Pa.) Preparatory school (1896), Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa., 1900), and Eastern Theological Seminary (1905).

Dietrich's first pulpit (1905-1911) was St. Mark's Reformed Church in Pittsburgh. Although very popular with his congregation, Dietrich began running afoul of the Reformed Church hierarchy with his increasingly liberal interpretations of scripture. In 1911, after Dietrich had twice opened his pulpit to a local rabbi, the Allegheny Classis of the Reformed Church charged him with heresy. The Classis accused him of heterodoxy in five areas: his unbelief in scriptural infallibility, his unbelief in the infallibility of the Heidelberg Catechism, his unbelief in the virgin birth of Jesus, his unbelief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and his unbelief in eternal punishment. Although he had mounted a defense of his position on paper, Dietrich decided, in the interest of his congregation, not to fight the charges. He resigned his ministry and his Reformed Church membership in July 1911; shortly thereafter he accepted ordination in the American Unitarian Association (AUA).

...